Epistemic Oppression, Construct Validity, & Scientific Rigor: Commentary on ‘Bias, Fairness, & Validity in Graduate Admissions: A Psychometric Perspective’ (Accepted Manuscript Version)

In this commentary, I highlight flaws in the article by Woo and colleagues (in press, this issue) that undermine its credibility and utility as rigorous science that contributes to the field by discussing: 1) the concept of epistemic oppression (e.g., Dotson, 2014) regarding the glaring exclusion of multiple germane bodies of research; and 2) the importance of including construct validity within a psychometric article regarding the GRE (ETS, 2019). I conclude with a plea to the authors that the matter of anti-Black violence and murder, for which they reference, is one to be taken respectfully, seriously, and somberly.

Analysis and Prediction of Graduate Admissions Based on Pre-COVID and post-COVID Scenario

Graduate admissions is one of the events that attracts a lot of attraction from prospective students and universities alike. Be it the university conducting graduate admissions or an aspiring student; both yearn for a prediction system to aid in the process of selecting admits. On one hand, the university can get an insight on the probability of a student's admit thus aiding the graduate admissions office in their workload, and on the other hand the student can get a forecast on the chance of admit and can take preemptive decisions to facilitate the process. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the graduate admissions has seen a slight change in paradigm. This change creates confusion among the related masses. A probing analysis on this change serves as a reference to act upon. In this study, prediction models are built with an extra parameter signifying whether a record in the dataset belongs to the COVID-19 pandemic period. Various models such as Logistic Regression, Decision Tree, Random Forest, Gaussian Naive Bayes and Artificial Neural Networks are used to determine the change in probability of admission due to the effect of the pandemic. All the models provide an accuracy score in the range of about 55% to 80%, with the Neural Network outperforming all the other models with a test accuracy score of 79.03%. The effect of the pandemic has caused an ambiguous response to various factors, but it can be stated the chances of admits of students have generally increased likely due to the lower number of applicants

A Long-Term Vision on Faculty Diversity at UC Davis

The sustainability of ADVANCE, beyond its early successes at UC Davis, largely depends on whether it can propel the types of transformational changes needed to fulfill ADVANCE’s own aspirations. One of these aspirations is to change the face of STEM at UC Davis. Transformational change must consider the pipeline of Latinx and other underrepresented students into all doctoral programs, including but not limited to STEM. This chapter addresses the need to expand on the ADVANCE initiative to grow the pool of doctoral underrepresented minority (URM) students at UC Davis and nationally, as well as to promote their integration into successful careers after graduation, as professors, scientists, or professionals who go on to become leaders in government or industry. At UC Davis, these efforts have already begun in earnest and include visionary changes to revamp recruitment practices for graduate students, transform graduate admissions practices, and improve mentoring of students during and after completion of their programs. This chapter explores these efforts at UC Davis and summarizes the lessons learned from their implementation.

Engaging Faculty in Shifting Toward Holistic Review: Changing Graduate Admissions Procedures at a Land-Grant, Hispanic-Serving Institution

Purpose The aim of this tutorial is to share lessons learned from a speech, language, and hearing sciences department at a land-grant, Hispanic-serving institution (HSI) after revising the graduate admissions review process and subsequent discussions related to equity in assessment. This tutorial describes the department as a case example and includes guiding questions that may be helpful for other organizations. Method An adaptive case study approach was used and centered on supporting students at Hispanic-serving institutions. The approach was characterized by structured collaborative reflection throughout the process and engagement of relevant stakeholders at multiple levels. The adaptive method allowed for interim synthesis of stakeholder discussions to inform subsequent phases of the reflection process. Results This tutorial shares critical motivations, barriers, facilitators, and phases that were identified in moving toward holistic evaluation for graduate admissions. Targeted areas for continued improvement related to diversity, equity, and inclusion are described. Conclusions This tutorial outlines lessons learned from changing graduate admissions practices toward holistic review. Self-reflection prompts are provided for institutions and organizations considering changes to their review process. In order to best support diverse communities, increased workforce diversity is needed in the speech, language, and hearing sciences professions, and holistic review practices are recommended as one way to support increased diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Do No Harm: Graduate Admissions Letters of Recommendation and Unconscious Bias

Purpose Faculty members commonly write letters of recommendation (LOR) for students. Although letters can be helpful, they may do more harm if they include language that can negatively bias readers. The purpose of this article is to examine LORs written for Black applicants to speech-language pathology graduate programs for the presence of phrases that may bias readers (PBRs). Method Using data from our program, we analyzed LORs for evidence of bias. Results Across the 161 LORs, there were 202 instances of PBRs. The most PBRs were grindstone adjectives and doubt raisers/hedges. PBRs were not related to applicants' GPA, undergraduate institution type, or LOR word length. PBRs were related to admission offers. Conclusions Results suggest a negative impact of PBRs in LORs written for Black applicants. Implications are discussed and recommendations for writing less-biased LORs are provided.